Is stress hijacking your mind? Part 2: The brain drain

Following on from last week’s episode, I explore what happens when you are under severe stress, when the rational and logical version of you is not in control and instead, the fearful, irrational, and hyper-emotional version of you takes over. When you’ve been hijacked!

To recap...

“Amygdala hijack” was coined by psychologist Daniel Goleman in 1995 to describe how the amygdala, the part of your brain that processes emotions and memories associated with fear, overrides the frontal lobes during stress. Under normal conditions human beings utilize their frontal lobes to regulate logic, decision-making and planning. During a fight or flight response the amygdala can override the frontal lobes, leaving them out of the decision-making process.?

Fight-or-flight

Our body is a machine that has developed over many years. As human beings, there are biological mechanisms that control our behavior to help with survival. While most mechanisms help us function successfully in our environment, there is one particular tool that can work against us: the fight-or-flight response.

The fight-or-flight response is?a physiological reaction that either prepares our bodies to stay and fight or to flee.

You’ve likely had firsthand experience, with the many physical side effects, i.e., increased heart rate, shallow breathing, dilation of pupils, etc. But you may not be aware of the changes that are happening in your brain.?

Quality or quickness?

The fight-or-flight response is designed for immediate danger; less thinking and more doing. When your life is in danger, quickness matters, and the amygdala is designed just for that.?

Say you spot a large bear in the distance that spots you back. There are many different scenarios that a calm, logical person could surmise on how to survive this encounter, however, it is unlikely that you would have the time to weigh the pros and cons of each. In this case, survival depends on the quickness, not the quality, of your decision.

The amygdala works quickly, while the frontal lobes work slowly. The question is, when we are faced with a public speech, a negotiation at work, or a dilemma at home, do we want quality or quickness?

Use your frontal lobes

Your frontal lobes are the part of you that comes up with that witty comeback after the conversation is over and analyzes your actions in the cold light of day.?

Imagine you could come up with that witty comment during the actual conversation, or?your big presentation isn’t butchered by drawing blanks and missed quotes.?

Imagine a world where you could choose which part of your brain to use when it mattered the most.?

When does your amygdala hijack your brain?

Tune in next week for part three of the series, where I consider how and when our amygdalas are in control, and how you can recognize if you are unable to act rationally due to social evaluation and unpredictability.?